Barcelona, FP2: Mercedes continue to set the pace in Barcelona

Hamilton keeps Mercedes ahead as Ferrari close in

Lewis Hamilton went quickest in Friday’s afternoon practice session in Barcelona with the Briton finishing just under a tenth of a second ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas to hand Mercedes its second one-two of the day.

In the morning session, the Silver Arrows finished almost a second clear of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen but while Hamilton and Bottas again outpaced their main rivals in the afternoon the gap was much smaller, with Kimi Räikkönen again quickest for the Italian outfit, 0.310s behind Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel a further tenth of a second back in fourth place.

Red Bull Racing, which like Mercedes has brought a major upgrade to Spain, was again closer to the top two teams in the afternoon. In the morning Max Verstappen was fourth, a tenth behind Vettel, and in the afternoon the Dutchman kept up the pressure, finishing just over two tenths of a second behind the German. Daniel Ricciardo again finished marginally behind team-mate Verstappen, his time of 1:21.585 being just over a tenth behind the Dutchman.

Red Bull engine supplier Renault finished just behind their customer team, with Nico Hulkenberg finishing a tenth off Ricciardo. Team-mate Jolyon Palmer, who took over at the wheel from test driver Sergey Sirotkin, was eighth with a time of 1:21.992. Hulkenberg was the last driver to get within a second of Hamilton’s pace-setting time.

Felipe Massa was ninth for Williams, while Carlos Sainz Jr completed the top 10, having brought out the red flags an hour into the session when a heavy hit on the kerbs left debris scattered across the track at Turn 9.

After a difficult morning session which saw Fernando Alonso’s car grind to a halt on his first lap, McLaren saw both cars run in the second session, though the Spaniard had to wait until half an hour into the session to get going due to an engine replacement being undertaken on his car.

Stoffel Vandoorne completed 36 laps during the session, posting a best time of 1:22.693s, 1.891s behind Hamilton. Alonso, however, finished the session in 20th place with a time 3.275s adrift of first place.